BMW Group pushes 3D printing toward full industrial series production

The BMW Group is turning additive manufacturing from a prototyping tool into a standing pillar of its industrial production, with the first vehicle components made by Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) scheduled to enter series production in 2027. The push is being run out of the company’s Additive Manufacturing Campus (AMC) in Oberschleissheim, north of Munich, where a new generation of metal printers, larger build volumes and digitally networked process chains are now being brought online. The shift is important because it marks the point at which 3D printing stops being a workshop for one-off parts and starts behaving like any other production line at scale. “Additive Manufacturing is now fully integrated across all phases of the product lifecycle,” said Timo Göbel, Head of Additive Manufacturing at the BMW Group. New machines, bigger builds, open systems The near-term work centers on integrating a new fleet of metal systems and connecting them into automated, digitally linked lines. Inside the AMC, BMW runs equipment from suppliers including Farsoon, HP and TRUMPF‘s metal printing unit, now spun out as ATLIX. Larger build envelopes are expected to make big, highly functional metal components viable with shorter lead times and, in many cases, no traditional tooling at all. Göbel framed the guardrails for that scale-up around openness rather than proprietary lock-in. “A key pillar of our scaling strategy is the use of automated, digitally networked process chains, along with open-material systems and open interfaces, all of which allow seamless integration into our existing production structures,” he said. Fast, robust systems are intended to let factories worldwide print their own tooling, jigs and production aids locally and at short notice, rather than waiting on a central supplier. WAAM is the strand of the campus’s work carrying the heaviest expectations. BMW describes it as especially suited to large-format metal components, complementing its other additive processes wherever size, productivity and industrial integration have to come together. The company says it is steadily enhancing the technology and rolling it out into series production. The process is already firmly established in prototype development. Vehicle testing with WAAM components has been underway since 2025, and series production of the first parts is scheduled to begin in 2027, the point BMW frames as WAAM’s step up from promising technique to qualified production process. A long groundwork None of this is a standing start. BMW commissioned its first additive systems as early as 1990 and 1991, using them to produce prototype components. The technology later moved into series applications with Rolls-Royce, produced the first series metal components for the BMW i8 Roadster, and was used to customize parts in aftersales. The AMC has been the accelerant. Open since 2020, it brings production, research and training under a single roof, and since production began there it has turned out more than 1.6 million parts, with a further 100,000 components a year made decentrally inside the vehicle plants. Additive manufacturing has also supported the development and validation of the company’s Neue Klasse vehicles and produced 3D printed components for the latest-generation electric drive. The value BMW draws from all this sits less in the layer-by-layer building itself than in development speed: parts can be produced quickly, modified as needed and tested in real conditions early. Many are now functional enough for dynamic functional tests and even crash tests rather than serving as prototypes alone, which shortens development times and strengthens the technical validation of new vehicle concepts, much of why the company is prepared to keep spending. “We are seeing strong growth in this technology across a wide range of applications at every stage of the product lifecycle, so we will continue to invest,” Göbel said. The automotive industry’s shift from prototyping to production BMW’s strategy is less about any single printed part than about industrialization: turning additive manufacturing from a collection of standalone applications into a resilient, scalable production system. That direction mirrors moves elsewhere in the sector. In 2026, Formlabs launched its Fuse X1 system, with Tesla using the machine both to accelerate development and to produce end-use parts and tooling for its production line; early automotive and consumer-product customers printed more than 30,000 parts on the units within four months, underlining how printing is migrating from the prototyping bench into live production. In 2025, Japanese automaker Honda detailed how it isapplying 3D printing across automobiles, motorcycles, motorsport, power products and aerospace, including a 3D printed turbine housing inside its Formula 1 engine; in the same vein, Ford has produced more than 1,000 printed parts, such as battery cold plates and cooling plates, for its 2026 F1 return, underlining how printing is moving from the prototyping bench into performance-critical production. From performance parts to production tooling, printing is spreading across the automotive lifecycle. Metal processes and race-proven applications are pushing the technology into critical roles. What began as prototyping is fast becoming everyday manufacturing. 3D Printing Industry is inviting speakers for its 2026 Additive Manufacturing Applications (AMA) series, covering Energy, Healthcare, Automotive and Mobility, Aerospace, Space and Defense, and Software. Each online event focuses on real production deployments, qualification, and supply chain integration. Practitioners interested in contributing can complete the call for speakers form here. To stay up to date with the latest 3D printing news, don’t forget to subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter or follow us on LinkedIn. Explore the full Future of 3D Printing and Executive Survey series from 3D Printing Industry, featuring perspectives from CEOs, engineers, and industry leaders on the industrialization of additive manufacturing, 3D printing industry trends 2026, qualification, supply chains, and additive manufacturing industry analysis. Featured image shows 3D printed components for the development of the latest-generation electric drive. Photo via BMW.